“I’m proud to say we were told that the new funding is a reflection of what DRC diabetes investigators have accomplished over the past five years,” said W. Timothy Garvey, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences and principal investigator of the new grant. “This award speaks volumes to our team’s dedication and determination to discovering new methods for treatment and prevention of diabetes.”

Alabama ranks among the top states in diabetes prevalence, and diabetes exerts a huge burden of patient suffering and social costs.

The grant, number P30DK079626-06, awards the UAB DRC $1,034,029 each year for a total of $5,155,614 for all five years.

The DRC has established multiple core facilities to enhance diabetes research across the spectrum from basic to clinical investigation. This is a “translational research” effort which means the center brings basic advances in our understanding of diabetes to the bedside and to the community with interventions that improve the health of our patients. The center also bring international experts in diabetes to confer with our scientists and assists in the training of the next generation of researchers and clinicians in diabetes.

“A major challenge in researching preventions and cures is the time it takes to bring scientific evidence from the laboratory to the patients being treated in the clinic,” said Garvey. “This grant facilitates that process, and has helped establish UAB as a leading center for progress in diabetes. The UAB DRC is one of only 16 such centers at leading academic medical institutions in the U.S.”